July 25, 2006

Harry Potter PartyThomas turns 6 in a week and a half. SIX! Suffice to say I'm freaking out a little, no make that a lot. Six is big, six is an age I can remember being. For months he's been pestering me that he wants a Harry Potter birthday party. And I said, yes sure dear, thinking he'd forget all about it when the date was near. It appears he has not. So this past weekend we made invitations on old looking paper (torn and inked edges, woohoo for scrapping supplies), rolled them up and hand delivered them on Monday morning to the choosen few. If it was up to him he'd invite the whole class. I think not! Set my limit at 8. Surprisingly he invited girls, 3 of them. I always thought boys were of the opinion that girls were stupid. But maybe that age is still to come? Anyway, here I am tearing my hair out of what to do with this crowd Saturday next week. Thank goodness for the internet, I've done a quick google search for Harry Potter parties and an enormous list of sites came up. Will have to have a better browse a bit later. Must say that the games I've seen suggested so far seem a bit lame.I think I'll let them decorate their own wizard or witches hat - at least 2o minutes filled he he.Cake and pressies another 20 minutes.Sorting Hat ritual (possibly divide them into the four houses or teams for other games)- about 5 minutes.Find the Philosophers Stone in a dark and ghostly room (streamers and reflective stars from the ceiling, mock spider web?)- 15 minutes.And that only fills one hour! Some more procrastinating is obviously needed.

Which brings me to Crafting Connections. I've signed up for the mini-event. Would have loved to do the big one but my budget won't allow it. I've come to the realisation I have to do homework for one of my classes (Perspective with Ali E) and I need pictures of me. Bugger. 1) I hate having my picture taken and 2)I'm not at my most photogenic at the moment with stress and sleep deprivation seriously marking my face. And then the homework itself, uhm, if I was to answer to questions seriously in my current state of mind it's going to be a thoroughly depressive read. I know it's all about capturing a moment in time but quite frankly I'd like to erase these past two years from my memory if I could. And it's not over yet.And then there's the issue of swap pins. I was going to build on my theme from last year and do something jewellery related but with the latest For Keeps issue with Nic's awesome Queen & Co jewellery and with other jewellery themed projects popping up all over the place it's only going to look like a cheap rip-off. Besides, time is running out and I haven't got the energy at the moment to invest into making something really cool. I couldn't do something plain because that's just not my style. If I'm handing out something with my name on it I want to be proud of what I created if you know what I mean. So more than likely no swap pins from me this year...

Hey babe, yell out if you want me to take some pics of you at the weekend. OOH and a GREAT game for Thomas's birthday that our kids love even at the ages of 8 and 13 was 'FOOD FACTOR'. We lined them up and had all sorts of stuff on kebab sticks - pineapple, luncheon, marshmallows, gerkins etc - they had a ball and request it every year now. I finally lined them all up with an icing bag of cream and they had to fill a brandy snap as the last challenge. Needless to say .. lots of giggles and boys should enjoy that too.

I know the state of mind you are currently in (I wish i Didn't but I do). I found recently my art is one was to get myself through it. Could you take an altered picture of yourself to the workshop...one you have doodled on too show your state of mind (like the hair on my blog). If you do, grab a white-out pen and doodle away. to change the colour just use a texta to colour the white in.

Hmm as for journaling, what do you want to say. I guess the thing to remember is that you are writing about yourself, to remind your kids about who you are and what your life is about. Maybe they need to know the depressing stuff (when they are older) to see that Mum was real and this is how she got through it. Does that make sense? Here is a not so good example http://www.bluebazaar.com.au/bb/album_showpage.php?full=&pic_id=5922

Hope things perk up for you soon. Just been looking at some of your lo's, wow your work is awesome. No point stressing over swap pins. I hear you re the 'photos of me', I am doing the perspective class too.

hopped over from 2peas (you're post on my dt search) and thought I'd stop by. Good luck on the party, my son just wanted to go to an indoor playground while I had a whole pirate them in mind .....And wow you get to go to a workshop from ali, I'm jealous.And what is that with the pins ? We don't do that here in holland .....grts, D@nielle

You can even adapt old favourites like bobbing apples (boys often love this) by using grapes instead and telling them its Mad Eyed Moody's eye! You can do a treasure hunt to find the philosophers stone or I will often do a story thing up (for my cubs) ...that Draco has hidden the fat lady portrait over gryffindors common room so they cant get in..etc etc (they have to find it)

good luck with the party.I say a hr is a good entertainment for them + you know boys they will then run around for the next hr!!!My oldest will be 6 the following mth + I too can't beleive he will that age!!Hey congrats on the scrapgal DT gig thats very exciting + not surprising.OMG everywhere i go I read about the homework for CC........OK I think I'm missing something??Haven;t started pins but I know what I'm doing.........just need more time!!